05/27/2026
Rail Creek Park now just a 404 Error.
We learned yesterday at the Shawnee city counsel committee meeting that the Rail Creek Park project - a unique to the metro bike-centric city park - has been left out of the 2027 budget and removed from the 10 years capital improvement plan.
Rail Creek Park was a multi-phase project to create a city park, a permanent residence for Donderdag! Youth Cyclocross Clinics with a world class cyclocross course, and a National Interscholastic Cycling Association caliber mountain bike trail. To many people, this is the kind of quality of life project that the City of Shawnee, KS Government should be investing in for its future. Not that this should be the highest priority, but that it is worth making a priority.
Engaging youth outside of a screen to ride bikes, enjoy nature with their friends, learn life-long skills, pays dividends back to the community for generations. This is why the City has already made investments in pool, sports fields, over 1000 acres of parks, and other amenities. It is also why so many people were enthused about the prospect for a transformative park project in western Shawnee.
While the Rail Creek Project is not dead as the result of being shelved, it won't survive unless the residents of Shawnee speak up and show up. An opportunity to encourage the City Council to place the Rail Creek Project on the 10 years CIP will come around again in July. Please contact the City Council and Shawnee Parks and Rec to express your support to keep this project in the City's long term plans.
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We would love to see all the families with kids who ride bikes and are looking for more opportunities to do so safely throughout the City to show up in July, bikes in tow, to support the future of youth cycling in Shawnee.
Rail Creek Park has long been envisioned as a bike-centric park and, above all, a park that serves the City of Shawnee. Resident surveys done to help create the city’s Achieve Shawnee Comprehensive Plan showed that bike facilities and multi-use trails were a top priority, and the City is respondin...
